Anderson high stadium renovation underway

GREAT WALL:
A group of construction workers surveys the retaining wall Anderson Union High School, the first phase of construction for the Bob Reid stadium renovation. The new stadium should be done by June 2009.

The Bob Reid Stadium renovation at Anderson Union High School is underway.

Construction of a retaining wall and entrance to the stadium is about two-thirds finished, and grandstand and an all-weather track construction is slated to begin after football season.

Principal Scott Booth said the stadium renovation project, or at least the idea of an updated stadium, is about 15 years in the works. “In the past two years, the district board of trustees has really moved to make it happen, because we have been waiting so long,” Booth said.

The bulk of the project is being paid for by school budget funds slated specifically for facility improvements.

Booth said the new state-of-the-art stadium will be safer, have handicap accessibility and will be aesthetically pleasing. It incorporates the Cubs blue and gold colors.

“It’s going to be beautiful, actually having some color to the grandstands,” Booth said.

Construction of the retaining wall is almost finished. Booth said that project will be wrapped up and by the first football game, when construction will be halted.

“Once the season is over, we go indoors for basketball and that will allow us to move putting in the new grandstands and the all-weather track in, and not worry about disrupting any of our athletic teams,” Booth said.

If timing goes as planned, the principal said construction of the grandstands will be finished for next year’s graduation.

Anderson city council member Keith Webster is one of a group of Cub alumni who helped push the project forward.

The driving force for Webster was the addition of an all-weather track.

“We have not hosted a track meet at Anderson high school for almost 20 years,” he said. Without a legal, all-weather track on their home turf, Anderson’s track team has had to host meets at West Valley High School.

“There are grade schools that have all weather tracks,” Webster said.

Webster, who graduated in 1970, said he and his fellow Cub alumni still care about the school.

“It’s very important to us,” he said. “I still have my class ring. I’m wearing it today.”

The former Cub said the renovated stadium area will be the icing on the cake for the high school.

“We have a beautiful swimming pool. We have an awesome performing arts building. We have done a lot of nice things at the high school, and I think this is the last thing to really set the school off,” he said.

Principal Booth said high school facilities drive enrollment. The updated stadium could attract new students to the school and, in turn, bring in additional school funding.

In the end, the overall goal for the renovated stadium is to better serve the students and the community.

“You want a facility that our students deserve - that our community deserves,” Booth said. “Every night there is people walking that track, so it will really be something the community will be able to take advantage of.”

Counseling center remodel

Students will return to school to a remodeled counseling center.

Principal Scott Booth said the counseling center remodel is a welcome change, and makes the space more user friendly.

“The students are going to have better accessibility to their counselors center, better accommodations and more privacy,” he said. The remodel has also revealed an airy, open space.

“Restructuring that building has opened it up so much. There is a tremendous difference of what it was and what it is now,” Booth said.

The building’s layout centers on the registrar’s office and is surrounded by a ring of counseling offices. Counseling offices will include the school psychologist and the school’s family therapist. The athletic director will also have an office in the building.

Last week, new registrar Paula Foster was emptying boxes and organizing her things in preparation for the Aug. 18 start of the school year.

“It’s awesome moving into a new building right when I start work,” she said.